I am looking for some kind of random table or spreadsheet that I can use for a business in 2nd edition rules or 1, 3, 3.5 edition rules that i can go ahead and convert.

The only table i could find so far was one made by stargate for running a tavern.

Im looking for ones that would work for an inn, smithy, hauling or trading company, mining company and scribes hall, temple. I have access to alot of the various books, just not here at my house and ive had no luck finding anything besides the tavern rules.

Basically im taking over the legistical side of running a 2e game and the pcs are at the point where they have hundreds of thousands of gold and wish to build a city.

Any edition or game world will work, i can convert anything to 2e.. well cept 4th but thats cuz its 7 kindsa of fubar for anything but combat.

All kinds of good stuff can be found (for free) in this excellent excerpt from an excellent product.

wow. that is amazing. How did you find it? I spent about a dozen hours today scouring the web looking for something exactly like that.

Thank you :)

Well, once you build a city, you’ll need to populate it, and I recommend this page for coming up with numbers. =)

If they wish to build a city, I would strongly (wait for the pun folks…) recommend the Stronghold Builder’s Guide, an old 3e D&D supplemental book, and perhaps one of most overlooked ones. The book itself details every detail you could need for building everything from a castle to a summer cottage – including wall structures, defenses, hiring guards, servants and artisans, stocking the place, and adding additional rooms – all with gold and time it takes to build.

In this way, it is very 2e friendly as the only thing you would need to change are some of the details about hardness, traps, etc.

I had a few issues with the Stronghold Builder’s Guide, but that’s mostly because it is intended for building, well, strongholds. Overall, I’ve been able to adapt it to my needs, and no doubt anyone else will be able to as well.

The AD&D 2nd Edition World Builder’s Guidebook has just the right level of detail, for my purposes, for building cities. Not sure how many taverns a city of a certain size should have? The WBG will help you figure it out. Still my favorite D&D book ever. Cityscape (for D&D v.3.5) is also really good for city-based gaming.

If you’re more looking for rules for running businesses, on the other hand, that’s a different kettle o’fish. You might try combing Dragon magazines for articles on the subject. I seem to remember “A Capital Idea” from #113 was a good (AD&D 1st Edition) one, but I don’t have it in front of me.

Thank you all for the help.. ALL of that info is being used :)